- 「塾長が元気で健康でいるという事」です。自分しか経営者や講師はいませんから、健康でいるという事は一番大切です。健康管理や食生活、運動、睡眠、ストレスの意識的発散、年一回の健康診断は欠かせません。
- 「決して１人にならない事」です。個人塾の塾長は独立心が強い反面、孤独な人が多いようです。「塾長会などを積極的に利用しましょう」。人間は孤独が大変精神的に良くないのですね。一人暮らししている人より知人友人が多い人の方が長生き出来て、ボケにくいのがその証拠と思います。
- 特に若い時には「無理をしがち」で、試験前に日曜日まで朝早くから夜遅くまで教室を無料で開けて指導するなどしがちですが、それが塾の特徴になってしまうと生徒もずるくなってきて、普段は少ない時間数しかとらなくても試験前に無料で勉強が塾でできるとなると、どうしてもそちらに来るようになってしまい、歳と共にそれが大変きつくなります。
- 経営が苦しいとどうしても「焦り」ます。このままでは破産して夜逃げをしなければいけなくなる、など悪い事ばかり考えがちです。普段から取引銀行（比較的信用金庫など小さい金融機関）を決め、その金融機関のスタッフと知り合いになる事です。個人の信用がその金融機関では大切ですから、ある程度事業が続き取引が問題なければ、融資においても低利の事業資金が利用できます。でも焦らず確実に返済出来る金額から利用しましょう。今なら無利子の県や市の公的融資は利用価値大です。
- 逆に生徒が増えると塾長はどうしても「欲」が出ます。今まで３０名前後がいきなり５０名近くになるのです。そうなると一人では見られないでしょう。まず何で３０人が５０人になったかを理由を考えて、小さい事から対処することです。急に増えたという事は急に減るかもしれないからですね。私は「身の丈定員」でずっとやっています。
- どうしても小中学生の塾で生徒数も収入も増えなければ、高校生コースの設置が話題になりますが、学校レベルによりまして大学入試も関係して、小中学生とは全く違ってとても大変な一面もありますから、プログラミングやカルチャーキッズなど今いる生徒を第一に考えて、違うジャンルの教室運営も考えてみましょう。予想以上の反応で生徒が増えている教室が多いです。
今回アドバイザーで一緒に来ていただいている長谷川先生は、 理数専門の小さい教室ながらプログラミングを導入されて、両方をうまく一人でオペレーションされていますので、何かわからない事でもあればご相談ください。現場に即した一人でできる無理のない導入から一緒にご助言させていただきます。
（総括） 私は塾など若い頃は全くやるつもりはありませんでした。大学では吹奏楽ばかりやっていましたし、帰省し会社勤めをしながら夢だった英会話の勉強を独学で始め、英語が話せるようになると自分の英語を試したくなり、伝統の県知事杯英語弁論大会に出場、前年の入賞を経て社会人で初めて総合優勝をしました。
大学のESSメンバーが多い中、独学の社会人の私が断トツの成績で初優勝し何か天賦の才を感じて、そしたら自分の英語を還元したくなったのです。それから米国の大学で英語研修なども受けましたが、学生時代には英語はそんなにわかる方ではなかった私ですが、正当なやり方で学びさえすれば、誰でも英語は分かり話せるようになれる！との確信理論の元に、英語教室を始めました。外人講師は非常勤しかいない教室でしたので、初心者初級者対象の教室でしたが英会話だけでは経営は大変苦しく、できるだけきれいな英語で学校英語も教えるようになったのが、塾の世界への第一歩で私の塾道の始まりです。
以来37年間、上記の内容は反省も含み少しでも後輩の塾長方々に参考になればと、今回お話しさせていただきました。最初は一人で始めた教室ですから、今後一人で続けてられなくなったら教室は閉じようと考えています。でも塾のポリシーは今でも「預かった以上は生徒が塾を去るまで、どの生徒も私自身が直接世話をする事」です。最近は若い保護者への対応も大切な役目と考え
「無理せず」「焦らず」「欲張らず」が、私の37年の塾道で悟った達観の境地です。
ありがとうございました。
How to Survive and Thrive" by a single-teacher president with around 30 students in Juku school
1. The most important thing is that the president is healthy and in good health. Since you are the only manager or teacher, it is most important that you stay healthy. It is essential to take care of your health, eat well, exercise, sleep, consciously relieve stress, and have a physical checkup once a year.
2. "Never be alone. While private school principals have a strong sense of independence, many of them seem to be lonely. Take advantage of the association of school heads. Loneliness is not good for the human mind. I think the fact that people who have many acquaintances and friends live longer than those who live alone is proof of this.
Especially when they are young, they tend to push themselves too hard and open the classrooms for free from early in the morning until late at night on Sundays before the exams, but when this becomes a feature of the cram school, students start to be sneaky. If they can study for free at the cram school before the exam even if they normally take only a few hours, they will inevitably come there.
4. If the business is struggling, you will inevitably become impatient. We tend to think only of the bad things, such as the fact that we will go bankrupt and have to run away at night. The best thing to do is to choose a bank (a relatively small financial institution such as a shinkin bank) and get to know the staff of that financial institution. Your personal credit is important to the financial institution, so if your business continues to grow to a certain extent and your transactions are satisfactory, you will be able to get low interest loans for your business. However, don't be in a hurry and start with an amount that you can surely repay. Nowadays, interest-free public loans from the prefectural and city governments are very worthwhile.
5.On the other hand, if the number of students increases, the principal will inevitably become greedy. The number of students that used to be around 30 suddenly increases to nearly 50. If this happens, you will not be able to handle it alone. The first thing to do is to figure out why the number of students has increased from 30 to 50, and deal with the small things first. Because a sudden increase might mean a sudden decrease. I've been doing this for a long time with a "body capacity".
6.However, depending on the level of the school and the university entrance examinations, there are aspects that are completely different from elementary and junior high school students and are very difficult. So, consider running a different kind of class, such as a programming class or a culture kids class. There are many classes where the response has been greater than expected and the number of students has increased.
(Generalization) When I was young, I had no intention of doing any cramming. When I became able to speak English, I wanted to test my English, so I entered the traditional Prefectural Governor's Cup English Speech Contest, and after winning the prize the previous year, I became the first adult to win the overall championship.
Among the many ESS members from my university, I, a self-taught adult, came out on top and won first place, which made me feel like I had a gift. After that, I took English training at a university in the U.S. I was not a very good student, but I was convinced that anyone can understand and speak English if they learn it the right way! I started my English class based on the theory that anyone can understand and speak English if they learn it the right way! Since there were only part-time foreign instructors, the class was for beginners and novices, but it was very difficult to run the business with only English conversation, so I started teaching school English as well, using clean English as much as possible, which was my first step into the world of cram schools and the beginning of my cram school career.
In the 37 years since then, I have reflected on some of the things I have said above, and I hope that they will be of some help to younger school principals. Since I started the school by myself, I am thinking of closing the school if I cannot continue it by myself. However, the policy of the school is still "I will take care of every student directly until they leave the school. Recently, I've been thinking that dealing with young parents is also an important role.
"Not overworking," "not rushing," and "not being greedy" are the values I have learned in my 37 years of teaching.
Thank you very much for your time.
